Chapter 227: The terrifying creature under the cave heaven gravity zone (6k)

Facing Zhang Wan Bao's confirmation again, Zhou Qing nodded without hesitation: "Hmm, it would be better if they could all be traded for supreme-grade spirit stones."

"Wait a moment for me; I'll go find Old Man Fu!" Zhang Wan Bao said, then hurried away.

After waiting for a while, he saw him come back, his face full of smiles.

"Brother Zhou, Old Man Fu likes those things very much. Because he didn't catch up with the Old Peng King matter in the Eastern Region last time, Old Man Fu has been brooding for a long time. This time you... forget it, let's not talk about that."

"All the things inside are calculated at the highest price for you, totaling thirty-six supreme-grade spirit stones."

Looking at the storage bag handed back, Zhou Qing felt a surge of joy.

Those things were basically useless to him; it was better to trade them for spirit stones.

"By the way, do you have supreme-grade wood-attribute spirit stones here?" Zhou Qing asked.

Zhang Wan Bao shook his head and said: "I don't know about that; I need to go to the warehouse to see. Do you need to exchange them?"

Zhou Qing nodded and said: "Hmm, I need ten wood-attribute spirit stones."

After Zhang Wan Bao heard this, he was surprised.

Ten wood-attribute supreme-grade spirit stones, even at the most ordinary exchange rate, would require one hundred supreme-grade spirit stones.

This is not a small amount!

"Alright, Brother Zhou, you drink some tea and eat some snacks first; I'll go check the warehouse right now!"

Zhang Wan Bao said, wiped the fine sweat from his forehead, and then moved his fat body and hurried out of the back room again.

Zhou Qing watched his back and shook his head with a helpless smile.

In fact, he could have sent someone to check the warehouse, but because it was his own business, he was extra attentive and didn't want to leave it to others.

Zhou Qing was full of emotion and had to wait quietly here with patience.

Not long after, he saw Zhang Wan Bao run back, his face flushed and panting heavily.

"Brother Zhou, your luck is simply amazing! The warehouse happened to have ten wood-attribute supreme-grade spirit stones in stock recently; they were originally planned to be shipped to the Lingyun Mansion headquarters this afternoon."

"If you had come a little later, these spirit stones would have been shipped away."

Zhou Qing's eyes lit up, and he said eagerly: "Can you leave these spirit stones for me?"

"That's a must! After all, I am the person in charge here. Let's exchange at a 1:9 ratio; it will be ninety supreme-grade spirit stones in total. If you don't have enough spirit stones on hand, I can guarantee for you; you can just write an IOU."

Zhang Wan Bao promised, patting his chest.

Zhou Qing looked at Zhang Wan Bao, who was out of breath and sweating profusely, and a warm current surged in his heart.

At this moment, he smiled and said: "All in, no discount!"

As he spoke, he took out the missing sixty-four supreme-grade spirit stones from his storage bag to make up for it.

From Hearing San Shixiong's Nascent Soul Pill, trading for Chaos Xuanjin, to the Soul-Returning Immortal Grass needed for his master's healing, including all the help over the past period, he had already troubled him enough.

At this moment, seeing Zhou Qing take out so many supreme-grade spirit stones at once, Zhang Wan Bao was full of surprise and said: "Brother Zhou, you've made a fortune recently!"

Zhou Qing shook his head and said: "What fortune? These are all my belongings."

Zhang Wan Bao didn't ask much and said: "You drink some more tea and wait for me for a moment; I guarantee I'll handle things for you properly."

As he spoke, he left again.

"Thank you, just walk; don't run!" Zhou Qing hurriedly shouted at his back.

At the same time, his heart was also extremely excited.

He never expected that he would collect one of the four materials needed to plant the Enlightenment Ancient Tea Tree so quickly.

Maybe the other three materials could also be found here.

But he seemed to be running out of money.

Zhou Qing looked at the storage bag; now only sixteen ordinary supreme-grade spirit stones remained, plus eight fire-attribute and seven water-attribute spirit stones.

This morning, he was still thinking that he wouldn't need to worry about cultivation resources for a long time, but in the blink of an eye, he was back to being penniless again.

Especially since he was now a second-level formation master, whether it was refining formations or breaking formations, he needed a large amount of materials, which was another significant expense.

If there was really no other way, it seemed he could only rely on refining formations to make money.

Originally, he could have exchanged spirit stones directly with Er Daye, after all, he offered a fifty percent discount.

But on the way back from the border, when he wanted to exchange them all for the fire-attribute and water-attribute spirit stones needed for the four-colored flower, Er Daye told him that he had no stock left either.

Helplessly, he had to look for other ways.

"Brother Zhou—" Soon, Xiao Cancan walked into the back room with a storage bag, smiling happily.

Zhou Qing was startled and subconsciously asked: "Where's Wan Bao?"

Xiao Cancan curled her lips and said: "He ran too fast and got a stitch; now he's resting at the warehouse."

Zhou Qing: "..."

"You see if the quantity is correct; I wanted to send it over, but this dead fatty didn't trust me, humph!"

Xiao Cancan stomped her feet in anger, her face full of complaints.

Zhou Qing hurriedly smoothed things over: "He's afraid you'll get tired and cares about you; don't overthink it."

As he spoke, he reached out and took the storage bag.

When he saw the ten wood-attribute supreme-grade spirit stones emitting rich vitality and glowing green light inside, Zhou Qing felt a surge of excitement.

Done!

But then again, Zhang Wan Bao was at the Jin Dan Realm after all; this physical condition, even if it was a family inheritance, should really lose some weight.

Looking at Xiao Cancan and Li Shitao, who had been reborn, the two were at the same realm, both having reached the mid-Jin Dan Realm, and were steadily advancing.

"By the way, Brother Zhou, I heard that some time ago, the County Governor of our Long Yuanjun appeared at the academy with the Blood Prohibition Army; did you see them?"

"Is Lin Daochen of your academy really promoted to a third-level formation master?"

"Have you seen the Dean of Bai Yu Taixu Academy? I heard that he created this academy in less than five hundred years, and it has already become the holy land that everyone in Haomiao Mansion yearns for most."

Xiao Cancan was full of curiosity and took this opportunity to ask a series of questions.

Zhou Qing looked outside the door, and seeing that Zhang Wan Bao hadn't returned, he had to answer her with a smile.

After about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, he saw Zhang Wan Bao return with an embarrassed face and dragging footsteps.

"Then you guys chat; I'll go first!" Xiao Cancan got up, hummed at Zhang Wan Bao, pouted, and turned to leave.

Zhang Wan Bao opened his mouth, looking like he wanted to say something but stopped.

Zhou Qing looked at the appearance of these two and shook his head with a helpless smile.

These two were both too well protected by their elders, and their temperament was still like that of a child who hadn't grown up.

"They need to be disciplined!" Zhang Wan Bao sat down and said stubbornly.

"What did you just say?" Suddenly, Xiao Cancan's head poked in from outside the door, her eyes staring sharply at Zhang Wan Bao.

Zhang Wan Bao's fat body trembled violently.

He hurriedly pretended to be nonchalant, picked up the teapot to pour tea for Zhou Qing, and muttered: "This tea isn't brewed well; I'll brew a pot of good tea for you later."

Xiao Cancan rolled her eyes, full of disgust, and then turned to leave.

Zhang Wan Bao then let out a long sigh of relief, raised his hand to wipe the cold sweat from his forehead, and then gave Zhou Qing a sheepish smile.

Zhou Qing could only hold back his laughter and change the subject, saying: "By the way, Wan Bao, do you have spiritual soil here?"

Zhang Wan Bao shook his head and said honestly: "Never heard of it."

"What about Xuan Bing Sui?" Zhou Qing was unwilling to give up and continued to ask.

Zhang Wan Bao still shook his head.

"Yan Ling Flower?" Zhou Qing was somewhat disappointed; the thing he was most worried about had happened.

Zhang Wan Bao was immediately embarrassed, because for the three things Zhou Qing asked about, he really hadn't heard of a single one.

Soon, he seemed to think of something and immediately took out two jade slips from his storage bag, colliding them to make a rubbing.

It took a long time before he handed the rubbed jade slip to Zhou Qing.

"Brother Zhou, this contains the names and images of all currently known heavenly materials and earthly treasures; it's something my Wan Xiang Auction House has collected for countless years before organizing."

"But until now, I've only memorized less than forty percent; maybe the things you want are inside, you can take a look."

After Zhou Qing heard this, his heart was full of surprise, and he hurriedly took the jade slip.

Unable to wait, he probed his spiritual sense into it, and in an instant, he was shocked by the content before him.

Because just the directory of various heavenly spiritual plants alone was dense, with a number of no less than thirty thousand.

The actual content was massive.

And it was recorded extremely detailedly, including precise image depictions of every spiritual plant, to the shape, texture, color, and even the shape of the fruit, all lifelike.

Besides that, there were detailed records of their growth habits, as well as the corresponding uses later, all expounded extremely thoroughly.

Such a priceless thing, even if you have money, you can't buy it.

Not just the three things needed this time, for his future cognitive expansion and practical help, it was immeasurable.

"I'll pay for it!"

Zhou Qing said he was going to take out money, but was hurriedly stopped by Zhang Wan Bao.

"Brother Zhou, are you treating me as an outsider? What money is there to talk about between us? To put it bluntly, do I look like someone who lacks money?"

Zhang Wan Bao was full of sincerity.

Zhou Qing had to let go of the hand patting the storage bag; he really didn't know how to thank him for a while.

"If you have any needs in the future, just speak to me!" Zhou Qing said.

Zhang Wan Bao then laughed.

The two chatted for a while longer, and seeing that people outside kept wanting to come in to deliver things, and some matters were waiting for this guy to decide, Zhou Qing had to say goodbye.

When they got outside, Li Shitao asked casually: "Why didn't your sharp-tongued Hearing San Shixiong come?"

Zhou Qing was about to speak, but suddenly had a flash of inspiration and immediately sighed, saying: "He's injured."

As soon as Li Shitao heard this, her originally calm face was immediately worried, and she subconsciously asked: "How could he be injured? When did this happen?"

But soon, realizing her loss of composure, Li Shitao said stubbornly: "He's such a slippery person, yet he can get injured; he deserves it!"

Looking at the sharp-tongued but soft-hearted Sister Tao, Zhou Qing couldn't help but smile.

These two fought every time they met, but they were the people who knew each other earliest.

According to Hearing San Shixiong, before he joined Taiqingmen, he pretended to be a Taoist priest to exorcise evil spirits for others, and thus got to know Li Shitao.

The two had come all the way, teasing each other and worrying about each other.

At this moment, Zhou Qing smiled: "Sister Tao, I'm joking with you; he's fine, he just went out to help my sect brother with something, and he'll probably be back in a few days."

Li Shitao heard this and was immediately anxious; she stepped forward twice and wanted to punch Zhou Qing.

For a moment, her chest was surging.

She said angrily: "Are you asking for a beating? But what does it have to do with me whether he's injured or not."

Although she said so, Zhou Qing clearly saw the sense of relief that flashed in her eyes.

Zhou Qing smiled and fled.

After returning to the academy cave dwelling, Zhou Qing first fed the old hen some spirit stones, and then couldn't wait to search through the jade slip.

The content inside was really too much; with his spiritual sense comparable to the mid-Divine Transformation Realm, it took him a full day to finally find the clue about spiritual soil.

【Spiritual Soil: A special soil that may be formed in spiritual plant gardens opened by ancient cultivators, or in environments with abundant spiritual energy for a long time, containing rich and pure spiritual energy of heaven and earth.】

【Generally used to cultivate those rare divine medicines, it can achieve twice the result with half the effort.】

Afterward, there were two lifelike portraits; the appearance looked no different from ordinary soil.

However, it presented two colors: pale gold and pale purple.

After Zhou Qing looked at it, he couldn't help but frown.

Where am I going to find a spiritual plant garden opened by ancient cultivators?

Wait—

Soon, Zhou Qing suddenly thought of something.

"Maybe I can go take a look!" Zhou Qing hurriedly took out the Shenxu Tiangong token and activated it with supreme-grade spirit stones.

Soon he arrived inside the Heavenly Palace.

He didn't see Number Six; instead, Number Four and Number Five were attacking their own forbidden zones.

As soon as Zhou Qing entered, an unprecedented terrifying sense of gravity came crashing down, directly making him stagger, his figure swaying endlessly.

But this time, there were no wandering souls of the Divine Transformation Realm; instead, the ground suddenly trembled violently.

A sense of peeping that emitted a death threat instantly locked onto him.

Zhou Qing's face changed; how could he have forgotten such an important matter.

The next moment, the ground suddenly trembled violently, as if some peerless fierce creature was about to break out of the ground.

Zhou Qing withstood the gravity, immediately took out the broken sword, and his whole person directly transformed into the second humanoid state of the Jin Peng true body, his whole body ready for battle.

"Roar!"

Accompanied by a deafening roar, a huge figure suddenly drilled out from the ground.

When he saw that thing clearly, Zhou Qing's pupils shrank suddenly.

That was a strange skeleton; at first glance, it looked like a dragon bone, but it had obvious differences.

Because it also had four sturdy leg bones, supporting its huge body.

What made people's hair stand on end was that the skull of this skeleton had been hollowed out, and in that hollow, a dried corpse was actually sitting cross-legged.

And the clothing worn by the dried corpse made Zhou Qing feel inexplicably familiar, but at this moment, he couldn't care about thinking too much, because the dried corpse as a whole presented a creepy blue-black color.

In the sunken eye sockets, two groups of ghostly green flames flickered, staring fixedly at him.

A strong killing intent surged directly toward him; Zhou Qing wanted to escape, but after breaking through to the Divine Transformation Realm, the gravity in the gravity zone was more terrifying than ever, slowing his actions.

And the speed of this strange skeleton was faster than imaginable; before Zhou Qing could react, it had already arrived in front of him.

A sturdy leg bone swung over and smashed fiercely toward him.

"Bang!"

With a loud noise, Zhou Qing was like being struck by lightning and was directly lifted away by this blow.

Even the hard Peng armor was torn with two bloody wounds at this moment, and blood flowed out from the wounds for a while.

Zhou Qing was full of horror; since cultivating the "Di Huang Jing," this was the first time his defense had been broken.

As he struggled to get up while enduring the severe pain, the skeleton let out a sharp whistle, the sound as if it could pierce the soul, which immediately stunned him.

The four-colored flower in his sea of consciousness instantly rotated rapidly, and before he could wake up, the dried corpse in the skeleton suddenly stretched out a hand as dry as firewood and grabbed his head.

Zhou Qing couldn't dodge in time, only feeling a cold and bone-chilling force strike, and then he heard the sound of "crack, crack" shattering, and blood immediately blurred his eyes.

Afterward, just like being headshot by that corpse-wax crow, his consciousness fell completely into darkness.

After opening his eyes again, he had transformed back into a red light spot, staring blankly at the forbidden zone light screen in front of him.

"I, I just died like this?" Zhou Qing, who had come back to his senses, was still in a daze.

How did it feel like he was beaten to death by the other party in three or two strokes.

The backup left in the Taiqingmen cave heaven is actually so fierce?

No wonder the Supreme Elders didn't dare to easily take risks to enter, and could only let the disciples under their sect pass through the gravity zone and open the key before daring to enter.

"Sure enough, as Master said, this thing under the gravity zone is not a living thing, but an existence similar to a puppet!" Zhou Qing muttered to himself.

The strength of this puppet, Soul Severance Realm is definitely impossible.

After all, from the founding of Taiqingmen to the present, there has never been a Soul Severance Realm in the sect, so how can we talk about making such a powerful puppet?

"But it is definitely stronger than the Supreme Elders, otherwise they wouldn't be so wary; perhaps, it is about the same strength as the County Governor Zhong Yao!"

Thinking of this, Zhou Qing's eyes suddenly lit up.

The predecessors of Taiqingmen still had some skills.

However, the dried corpse in the skull, Zhou Qing felt more and more familiar the more he thought about it.

"It's the first Sect Master!"

Soon, Zhou Qing suddenly remembered something, his eyes instantly widened, full of disbelief.

The core disciples accepted by the peak masters of Taiqingmen must go to the Ancestor Hall to pay respects to the portraits of all the past Sect Masters.

And the clothes worn by the dried corpse just now, their style and patterns, were exactly the same as the clothes worn by the first Sect Master Guo Guiqi in the portrait.

After thinking it through, Zhou Qing immediately felt respect.

It is said that the deceased should rest in peace, but the first Sect Master forcibly refined himself into a part of the puppet, choosing to become the last line of defense for Taiqingmen.

And he silently guarded the forbidden zone, witnessing the growth of Taiqingmen disciples generation after generation in his own way.

Zhou Qing sighed, his heart full of mixed feelings, looked at the light screen again, and helplessly chose to exit.

It was very clear that with his current cultivation, he couldn't break through the gravity zone at all, unless he entered with his true body next time and left some means there, perhaps there would be a glimmer of hope.

And his original plan was to see if the soil under the giant tree tied with that huge black heart was spiritual soil.

Unfortunately, in this simulation, there was no chance at all.

Afterward, he searched for clues to the other two spiritual medicines again.

Not long after, he discovered the information introduction of Xuan Bing Sui.

【Xuan Bing Sui: A kind of extremely cold and pure spiritual liquid, usually existing as ice-blue crystals, with powerful nourishing and purifying effects.】

【For practitioners who cultivate ice-attribute techniques, it is an excellent auxiliary cultivation material.】

【Generally existing at the bottom of a thousand-year cold pool, or deep in an ice cave in an extremely cold place, etc., and the probability of birth is extremely low.】

Zhou Qing was thoughtful.

"Cultivating ice-system techniques?"

Except for Lu Yaoyao, the only ones he knew were Lu Yuanzhi and Number Six; perhaps they should have relevant clues.

Number Six is still in a state of seclusion after obtaining that divine medicine, so the only one he can ask is Master Lu.

Find a time to probe her tone first.

Finally, in the evening, he found clues to the last material 【Yan Ling Flower】 from the jade slip.

【Yan Ling Flower: The flower presents a bright fiery red, and the edges are attached with faint golden flame patterns; it is a good medicine primer required for many high-level elixirs.】

【Usually grows in places of extreme yang, such as the edge of magma lakes, on spiritual veins where earth fire surges, and will even be accompanied by the birth of some Heavenly Dao Qi.】

Seeing this, Zhou Qing was full of surprise.

In the third coffin in the forbidden zone, the entire small world has almost turned into a piece of magma; there must be Yan Ling Flowers there.

And the Yin-Yang Qi he refined was obtained by Er Daye from there.

However, there is a Flame Crocodile King whose cultivation has reached the Soul Severance Realm; last time he and Er Daye joined forces, they tossed the other party hard enough; now going again, how easy is it?

"Some annoyance!" Zhou Qing was full of helplessness, gently took out the branch of the Enlightenment Ancient Tea Tree, and couldn't help sighing.

Suddenly, his expression tightened, he immediately put it away, looked outside the cave dwelling, and then walked out.

The moonlight was like water; it was still that tree, that back view.

"Did you go to the border? Recently!" The person in white spoke first.

Zhou Qing smiled without saying a word, didn't answer immediately, but moved his wrists.

"You can break through to the Divine Transformation Realm, which really surprised me, but you still can't catch up with me, I think!" The person in white spoke again.

Silver light flickered under Zhou Qing's feet, and there was even more thunder arc crackling.

"How do you know without trying!" After speaking, Zhou Qing instantly transformed into a thunder arc and shot toward the other party.

In the blink of an eye, he had arrived in front of the person in white, and just as he was about to reach out and pull his shoulder to see who he was, he took a step without panic.

This seemingly ordinary step seemed to contain some kind of law; Zhou Qing only felt a blur before his eyes, and the other party had already appeared several feet away.

Seeing this scene, Zhou Qing was startled.

Without a second word, he directly transformed into the second form of the Jin Peng true body and went up again.

For Zhou Qing's change, the other party was obviously startled and immediately increased his speed; the two chased and fled in the night, sometimes to the left and sometimes to the right.

After a long time, Zhou Qing panted slightly and stopped; the other party was also slightly embarrassed.

In terms of speed, Zhou Qing was fast enough, because he almost saw his side face several times.

But the other party had definitely reached the late or peak Divine Transformation Realm, to a certain extent making up for the potential disadvantage in speed.

"Let's speak plainly; what did we bear a grudge for?" Zhou Qing asked.

The person in white still had his back to Zhou Qing, looking at the rise and fall of his shoulders, he was also adjusting his breathing, and then said: "No grudge, just want to know more about you, I recently!"

Zhou Qing suddenly had a layer of goosebumps and turned and left.

If he didn't leave, he would vomit.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 228 =====